I haven't posted for a while, mostly because life has been extremely busy. But also, what an ugly market! It doesn't matter how good of a story any stock has, they are all getting indiscriminately slammed in this economy.
That being said, I have made some really good buys in the past two months at what appear to be lows (and I hope that remains the case). In the past month I've been focusing on picking up stocks that have a lot of cash on the balance sheets, especially those companies that are producing and have a good revenue stream.
There are a few ways to go with it these days. First option: trade, trade, trade. If you are comfortable with trading, and you know how certain stocks fluctuate, then there is a lot of money to be made right now. Things are incredibly volatile, which is awesome for traders. But that take time, patience, and steel huevos.
The other way to go is to look for companies with a market cap that is less than their current cash holdings, especially those that are not burning through the cash with major capital expenditures. New Gold (NGD.to) has been my best performer to date, as I bought it @ $0.98/share back in mid-November. It's doubled and pulled back a bit, but I think it'll go higher so I'm holding on for now. Another favourite is PhosCan Chemical (FOS.v), which is not yet producing but is worth at least $0.40/share based on its cash holdings alone, and it's currently sitting in the mid-$0.20 range. I picked up some around $0.20 cents, and I may add if it dips down again.
Anyone who bought oil stocks in the past year, especially jr. companies are probably crying in their cereal these days. What a truly depressing situation. I've seen my Oilexco stock go from $19 a share just six months ago down to a very sad $0.20 this morning on insolvency news. I probably couldn't even sell what I have for the transaction fee at this point. So what to do? Well, if you are like me and you think that the price of oil is madness, then think about investing in direct relation to the commodity. This morning I spent my Christmas bonus on shares of HOU.to, which tracks the price of oil on the NYMEX (but at double the rate). If you think oil will go up in the long term, then it's looking good right now to invest.
Other stocks that have been holding up nicely in this total market glut: Marvel (NYSE: MVL), Thomson Reuters (TRI.to), Kinross (K.to) and Goldcorp (G.to). Stocks I've purchased in the past six weeks that are performing well include: Kodiak Exploration (KXL.v, up 20% from purchase), Paladin Energy (PDN.to, up 30% since purchase), Uranium One (UUU.to, up 42% from purchase), Endeavour Financial (EDV.to, up 15% plus a nice dividend pay out today). I have only purchased one stock recently that is down, which is Ivernia (IVW.to). That's a long shot if Magellan can get their lead mine up and running again with blessings from the Australian government. So we'll see.
So that's my recent moves in a nutshell. Due to the shaky market, we've been diversifying lately ... really diversifying. We recently started to invest in income property and are in escrow/closing with a week or so to go. Maybe real estate will be good to us. In the meantime, I started a second job at a cruise agencY, selling warm vacations to frozen Canadians. Business is good, and it's a fun change of pace from my full-time job (which I still love, too).
I hope for everyone's sake that 2009 is an easier ride than 2008, but if not... just remember that you can find opportunities just about anywhere as long as you look hard enough!
Happy New Year everyone!
Deb
No comments:
Post a Comment